Article paru sur The Cabinet (blog en anglais) de Carly Abrahams-Dematte le 27 Mai 2010

Librairies are important to cummunities

I am writing this letter to share my views on the importance of the public libraries in our community in this day and age. I have worked at a public library for over a year now and believe that the great resources and programs that public libraries offer to the people of the area deserve greater attention. This attention would benefit all: communities, individuals and the library.

Looking at a library with regard to money, the results are fairly obvious. Each year we bring in and circulate many new books, audios, movies and other resources for people. This year alone we have saved almost $800,000 for the patrons at our library. Saving, as everyone knows in this economy, is very important. Books are important as well. The public libraries provide books and many other resources for free. Libraries not only save people money but also conserve energy and other natural resources. If you think about it, you buy a book and read it, once or twice most likely, and then in many circumstances it ends up on your bookshelf and may not be read again or used very much. At a public library, people are able to take out any book they want, again and again if they feel the need, but so can others. The books are used to the fullest and we don’t have to waste resources to make so many books that just sit on the shelf. We also provide public access computers with internet that anyone can use. This is especially important for people who cannot afford computers or internet access as well as anyone else who are out and about and find themselves needing to look up something.

Public libraries are a great asset to the individual as well as the community. Along with saving them money, libraries offer a place to socialize with other people through programs and activities. For the adults there are book lectures, art displays, places to host meetings, and many other groups organized by people in the community. For children there are game days, arts and crafts, and story times, perfect entertainment for little kids and a little break for the parents so they can browse for books. As years have progressed there have been more and more programs offered to teens as well and specifically put together in the hopes that more teens would be interested in coming to the library. The biggest jump ahead on this front at my own library is the buying of a Wii gaming device. With this device we hope to draw in more teens to come play, hang out, read books and play. We are not the only library in this country to purchase a Wii, and quite possibly not the last. Our hope is to bring a new kind of people to join the traditional users of libraries.

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One event I have witnessed where the public libraries really showed how great an asset to the community was during the New Hampshire ice storm of December 2008. When many people were out of power, the library, one of the first to get power back on, was there providing access to communication, bottled water, and coffee, trying to make people comfortable in a difficult time.

Public libraries play an important role in promoting literacy. It is a free place, open to all, with different programs to encourage all the generations to read. At my own library we have games and reading programs designed to motivate young readers to have fun finding books and activities they love and enjoy doing. One example of this is our Summer Reading Program. This program encourages children to read many books and rewards them with prizes and fun activities.

Libraries also protect freedom of speech, part of the U.S. Constitution. Through the ages, books became mass produced and as more people became literate, different belief systems have tried to ban books because of their content. For many years now public libraries have participated in a banned book week where all the books that are banned are put on display where people can find them easily and be encouraged to read them. In our country it is in the First Amendment to the Constitution that we have the freedom to say or write what we want.

As a whole, public libraries everywhere are a good resource for communities. They are trying really hard to provide a free and essential service and I believe that they succeed in this goal. Many people never set foot in their town libraries and this is very unfortunate. Greater attention and funding towards this service is well deserved.

Carly Abrahams-Dematte is an 11th-grader at High Mowing School. She works at the Wilton Public and Gregg Free Library in Wilton, NH.

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